Releasing Cin

"""Woah..."""

Within the room, the bed and other items were back on the floor and the array of blood wasn't visible, but the siblings looked around in amazement. Outside of the room, they couldn't sense anything different, but the moment they stepped in, all of them were overwhelmed by the amount of nature energy that was being drawn in.

The array had just been activated so it would take some time before the room was filled to the brim with nature energy. At that point, then as long as there was a condensation array or someone brought a bottle inscribed with the 'Condense' symbol, the nature energy could become concentrated into spirit drops, which was rarer and more effective than spirit gems but had the same uses.

"You can enjoy yourselves, I'll go add a few more things."

"Can I come with you?"

All but one of the siblings were still enamored by the effects of the array. Only Lily still had enough composure to properly process his words. Based on the fact that she said, 'can' and not 'should', Shui knew that this was a request of hers rather than a courtesy. This was the first time they had met since she swore to serve him, but her loyalty had been made clear to him so he didn't mind showing her more of his skills. In fact, she was so enthusiastic about serving him that he wondered if swearing a heaven and earth oath also had a hypnotic effect because it seemed like a bit much.

'I guess I'll have to get used to it.'

"Sure."

Lily was well aware that she was thinking of him way too frequently lately. Since she swore the heaven and earth oath, she felt a bond that would never break between them. When she found out his true age, part of her did want to spoil him, but it wasn't just that anymore. It wasn't romantic love, nor was it love for a family member. She believed it to be admiration, with a tinge of lamentation. She admired this boy who was so young yet could do so much. Unlike her who was powerless as a child, he had the strength and resolve to do what he wanted. Nevertheless, she knew that it wasn't so simple. The fact that he was so capable at such a young age proved that he had difficulties that she couldn't imagine, and so she wished to take a piece of that burden from him. At least a small piece.

Shui went to the front door and drew three arrays, each one on top of the other, with beast spirit blood. He then went on to draw these arrays on every door in the house. The first was once again a concealment array, followed by a protection array and then an energy gathering array in order of decreasing size. This composition of arrays was to gather energy that would fuel a barrier to protect the entrance while concealing its presence until it was activated.

The energy gathering array on the doors wouldn't be needed if there were enough spirit gems, but Shui knew that buying too many spirit gems at a constant rate would draw suspicion. There was still a need for spirit gems in the boys' room though. Since the story in the Heaven clan was that all of Bartos' apprentices could forge the harmony series and Bartos knew of his condition, it wouldn't be long before Shui went back to forging and got money from it. It would be better if he decreased the amount he forged per month but increased the general quality. With the funds gained from this, he could comfortably give the siblings enough spirit gems to run the array in the boys' room.

'It'll probably be a pain to convince them though.'

Just as he finished the last array, Lily wiped his face with a handkerchief like she had been doing since he started drawing arrays on the doors. It was actually helpful so he didn't stop her, but the eyes of the smaller siblings as they looked at him with strange expressions did make it hard for him to suppress the urge to blush in embarrassment.

"I'll start making lunch soon, will you stay?"

Over three hours had passed since he found them eating breakfast so it wouldn't be odd if they ate lunch soon. Shui did feel a little hungry but he remembered that this trip was a secret one so he couldn't stay for too long.

"Sorry, maybe another time. I need to go to the forest and then go back home."

"I see... May I come with you?"

The sad smile she showed after he declined lunch made it hard for him to refuse her once more so he allowed Lily to tag along, without informing Ryan of course. Ryan wasn't as devout as Lily but he would still want to follow them if given the chance.

Shui once again became a scholar and walked to Malirin Forest along with Lily. Lily received warm greetings when they passed by the gate, but no one saw him. Even she couldn't believe he was right next to her since he wasn't skilled enough to allow a specific person to see through the effects of the concealment array. Only when they were near the forest, did he turn off the array and wake up Cin who was on his head.

"We're here."

"So this is the place, huh?"

As an evolved beast with divine blood, Shui knew that Cin wouldn't be any housepet that would follow his whim. They were brothers, so to ensure that they could watch each other's backs, they had to go on their own paths.

"Remember to hide your race until you're strong enough to know your true name."

"Calm down. I'm your big brother, I can take care of myself."

Cin jumped off Shui's head and walked towards the forest. Cin didn't need to turn back to look at him once more before disappearing into the forest. All he needed to do was reveal the rising desire to fight in his aura and that was enough for Shui to understand what he wanted to say.

'I'll be going ahead. Try your best to catch up.'

Lily was surprised to see Cin, but she didn't ask. Once Cin was gone, Shui smiled in his scholar form and then looked at Lily and took out a bunch of talismans. Since he was spending more to invest in the siblings, he couldn't let that money be wasted. The talismans that he gave her were things only she could used. The symbol on them was 'Talk'. By itself, the symbol was pretty much useless, but as long as there was a strong line connecting the user and another person, it would allow for telepathy within a range based on how strong the bond was. With the oath that Lily had sworn, unless he was in a different space that was cut off from this one, he would still be able to talk to her with this talisman.

In addition to the 'Talk' talisman, Shui also gave her a round artifact that the other siblings could use to alert him. It worked on the basis of the communication terminal where a unique energy signal could be used to form a channel. However, he still wasn't able to understand how to transmit words over this channel so there was only an 'Alarm' inscription in the artifact. 'Alarm' usually broadcasted a basic energy signal that could be detected by anyone with strong enough senses in the area, however, by specifying the range and characteristics of the energy signal when drawing it, Shui made it so that 'Alarm' produced a vertical line of energy that was so faint it was only visible through his eyes and detectable by the artifact that corresponded with it.

With this artifact, when someone put their nature energy into it, a line of energy would rise from their position and a corresponding artifact that Shui had would vibrate after detecting this signal.

Once he gave her what he planned to, Shui watched as she reluctantly went back to Cyrus and he stayed where he was. The breeze on the plains caused his clothes to flutter and he took a moment to enjoy this feeling.

"I wonder how long it'll take. Until I'm able to move freely like this wind."